My savage 10FP in .308 is so inaccurate. 3 inch groups at best.

Hi all. I have owned this gun for a long time, 10 years plus.

When I bought it, it was just an impulse sort of buy. I mounted a scope, took it too the range, and over about 5 visits i could never get any group under 3 inches, with any ammo.

I thought to myself maybe I have become a bad shot, (i used to be a very good shooter), and I just put it away and forgot about it.

in the last 24 months I have really got back into shooting. It is not the shooter. I now own a ruger precision 6.5mm, an iron site AR, and a CZ .22 rifle.

with the .22 rifle i can shoot 1.5 inch group at 100 yrds. with the iron site AR i can shoot sub 3 inch groups at 100 yards. with the ruger i can shoot 0.5 inch groups at 100 yards.

I took apart the savage 10fp, remounted everything, double checked everything, tightened everything..... still cannot get a group under 3 inches. What is going on with this rifle? any ideas? What are the most likely things that are wrong and how should I check them? or is it possible the rifle is just a "dud"?

the scope on it is not high end but is not junk, its some sort of Leupold 3x-9x

I would switch the scope. If everything was kosher on the ignition, trigger and scope, it probably needs a barrel. All of this is assuming match ammo. Some cheap hunting ammo is lucky too have a 2 inch group. My 308 put down some darn UGLY groups with nato ammo.

Use Federal Gold Medal Match 175gr. This is the best factory ammo in 99% of applications with a 1:10 twist. Check for parallax in the Leupold, if more than 1" at 100yds boot it. Like Evlshnngns says...., you could try the optics off of your Ruger on the Savage. Put the Leopold on the Ruger and test both. Typical trouble shooting.

Seems it's definitely not the shooter.I'm thinking scope parralex,even Leopold has a lemon sometimes. By the way my savage 30-06 loves the cheapo Federal blue box ammo, give them a try

It was inaccurate/inconsistent out-of-the-box, so we should be able to rule out any round-count related issues like copper fouling, etc.
I concur with swapping the optic, an easy way to rule out that variable. But, I suspect that's not it (you re-mounted all, ruling out a loose mount, rings) and it doesn't sound like symptoms of a busted reticle to me.

It could be a stock-related issue (action screw torque can also contribute here, check to be sure the barrel's floating if you haven't already), or you could have just gotten a lemon barrel from the factory back then. With the Federal or Black Hills and the swapped optic, see if you notice a change in grouping while changing action screw torque values.

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Originally Posted by Robinhood

Use Federal Gold Medal Match 175gr. This is the best factory ammo in 99% of applications with a 1:10 twist. Check for parallax in the Leupold, if more than 1" at 100yds boot it. Like Evlshnngns says...., you could try the optics off of your Ruger on the Savage. Put the Leopold on the Ruger and test both. Typical trouble shooting.

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My FCP will shot these Factory bullets sub MOA anytime of the day, FYI

I have several Savage Rifles that are Sub MOA out of the box. I found it very easy to dial in a load, their not picky. I have Savages from 223 up to 308's!

What different ammo have you tried. Every gun likes different ammo. Just because it says match doesn't mean every gun will shoot it well.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

It can be frustrating. On some days my cheap Axis HB (Bushnell sceop it came with, .223) will out shoot my 12BVSS (Vortex Viper scope, .308). Both are a bit finicky about ammo. But, both will group less than MOA with Federal GMM ammo. I load them with Sierra Matchking bullets most of the time but have found Hornady ELD and Norma match bullets do as well.

BUT...I have found my flinch is getting worse the older I get (65). I have to take my time more when shooting to get down to MOA. I've thought about getting a lead sled for load development because of this.

I have 5 Savages and all shot under 1 MOA out of the box with factory ammo.
I have two model 10 .308s, one is an old FP that averaged 0.665 for all the groups shot through it until it finally started to show the effects of barrel erosion at over 6500 rounds.
One of the .308s, both with 24 inch barrels, likes 150 to 168 grain bullets, the other likes 175 to 200 grain bullets.
But both would shoot the less accurate weight ranges well under 1 MOA too.

I would also suspect you might have scope problems.
If you have torqued the bolts that hold the action to around 40 inch-lbs., you shouldn't be having problems with a loose action.
It is possible that you were unlucky and got a bad barrel. If you can't see any improvement after changing scopes, you might talk to Savage.
After having the rifle for 10 years, Savage might not consider it still under warranty.
But I had them replace the worn barrel on my old FP with a fluted target barrel and they did it in a month for $427 including shipping.
It came back looking like a new rifle, except for the wear marks on the bolt, and it out shoots the old barrel by 50%.

I recently bought a 12 LRP that was showing high pressure signs even with light loads and I documented that and sent the data to Savage.
They had me ship them the rifle and bored out a tight chamber.
It didn't change the accuracy on a very accurate rifle but I can now load close to Pmax and not experience any high pressure indications.
Savage has good customer service as far as I am concerned.

One of my targets shooting "Factory Ammo" with my out of the box FCP 308. No problems.

I agree with one of the comments above, try several brands of Ammo, they all shoot different.

Attachment 5432

I have fixed lots of bad barrels by replacing scopes.

i definitely have zero flinch. I shoot rotweil slugs from my 12 gauge at 100 yards with good groups, and that kicks way way more than the .308. Its a much lighter weight gun firing 5500 foot pounds of energy with no compensator. Same when firing friends .338 lapua, no flinch there either.

Maybe i should just put a picitanny rail on this savage 10fp, stick a reflex site on it, and turn it into a hog hunter? would be a decent hog hunter in that config with .308

I have never shot a hog from more than 100 yards, most are 30-60 yards, so 3 inch at 100 yards is good enough.

done, vortex venom ordered, ill see if i can shoot under 3 inches in the new config just for fun.

I would urge to swap out the scope, even if you have to borrow it for a day or two to eliminate some internal problem with the scope.

If you are confident in the mechanicals of the scope mount and stock bolts I would start with a good bore cleaning and then a box of Federal Premium ammunition.

If that fails THEN look into a different scope of reputable brand. Weight or not I always go with steel bases and rings when working on durability and accuracy. It is possible to overtighten some and screw the scope up from the get-go, so follow the scope manufacturer's recommendations.

When chasing accuracy change one thing at a time, starting with the least expensive. ;-)

i hate them kind of bad barrels LOL

FWIW. I've only had one barrel issue with savage, and I went through a similar struggle to figure out the problem. I couldn't get a new savage to group at 100, and I tried to shoot at 200, 400, 600. After shooting at a big piece of cardboard at 400 yards (and horrible groups), I could see from the holes in the cardboard that my bullets were tumbling. I finally figured out it was my barrel after I looked through the barrel in just the right type of light. I could see that there was a place on the lands that was dirtier than the rest of the barrel - no bullet contact. After looking at it, I figured out that the barrel wasn't made correctly and had something similar to a bubble in it. I walked over to the phone and called Savage and explained the whole situation. They emailed me a return label while we were on the phone. Savage replaced the barrel and sent the rifle back. The rifle (same scope, bullets...) is now a 1/2-3/4 moa rifle.

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Originally Posted by charlie b

It can be frustrating. On some days my cheap Axis HB (Bushnell sceop it came with, .223) will out shoot my 12BVSS (Vortex Viper scope, .308). Both are a bit finicky about ammo. But, both will group less than MOA with Federal GMM ammo. I load them with Sierra Matchking bullets most of the time but have found Hornady ELD and Norma match bullets do as well.

BUT...I have found my flinch is getting worse the older I get (65). I have to take my time more when shooting to get down to MOA. I've thought about getting a lead sled for load development because of this.

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I don't recommend a "Lead Sled". Get a decent one, front rest, and a Protector Bag for the rear, or get an motorcycle innertube and fill with sand. Works Great!